Publications

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June 2005
Case

CarMax

By: Rajiv Lal and David Kiron

Carmax is the largest multi-market used car dealer in the U.S., and has no format-to-format competitor in the $375 billion used car market. CarMax is trying to do what some analysts believed to be impossible: sell used cars profitably on a national scale, and at the... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Brands and Branding; Digital Platforms; Segmentation; Auto Industry

13 Feb 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 13, 2018

out the motivation to volunteer? Since the importance of such image concerns is normally unobserved, the answer is theoretically unclear, and corresponding empirical evidence is mixed. To help counter this ambiguity, this paper proposes... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2021 (Revised September 2022)
Case

GoPro: Becoming a Subscription Hero

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2021, Nick Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro, was reviewing the company’s subscription offering, considering whether to extend it beyond benefits that were directly related to the company’s iconic camera. Founded in 2002, GoPro had gained renown for its innovative... View Details

Keywords: Subscription Model; Pricing; Lifestyle Brands; Value Proposition; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; California

07 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

Improving Brand Recognition in TV Ads

Advertisers pay millions of dollars to air TV ads that, by some estimates, more than a third of viewers skip over with digital VCRs or by switching channels or tuning out altogether. New research by HBS professor Thales S. Teixeira offers... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Media & Broadcasting; Entertainment & Recreation

May 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Nike Football: World Cup 2010 South Africa

By: Elie Ofek and Ryan Johnson

Nike's Football division needs to devise a strategy to excel at the 2010 World Cup games in South Africa. Nike has gone from a niche player in the market for football apparel and footwear in 1994 to a formidable competitor to Adidas in 2008 (with revenues of over $1... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Business Divisions; Communication; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Planning; Competition; Apparel and Accessories Industry; South Africa

October 2016 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Bootstrapping at Lightricks

By: Robert White, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Christine Snively

By August 2015, two-year-old mobile imaging software startup Lightricks had developed and released two best-selling paid mobile apps, grown to a team of 30, earned a revenue run rate of nearly $10 million, and achieved modest profitability. The bootstrapped company had... View Details

Keywords: Business Startup; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Infrastructure; Business Startups; Digital Marketing; Finance; Strategy; Technology Industry; Israel

30 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Computer Security is For Managers, Too

Companies need to have smart technicians who stay abreast of emerging digital threats and defenses, of course, but the technicians shouldn't be calling the shots. General managers need to take the lead in building processes that will... View Details

Keywords: by Robert D. Austin & Christopher A.R. Darby

08 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 8, 2019

green. The Digital Commons: Tragedy or Opportunity? A Reflection on the 50th Anniversary of Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons By: Nagle, Frank Abstract—On the 50th anniversary of Garrett Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons,” this article... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

February 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

The Ford Fiesta

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Executives at Ford wondered if social media could be the marketing solution for the launch of the youth-oriented 2010 Fiesta. But with social media came a ceding of control. Some at the company believed that if Ford was going to move beyond its conservative brand image... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Digital Marketing; Leadership; Goals and Objectives; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Standards; Auto Industry

08 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

The Critical Computer Science Principles Every Strategic Leader Needs to Know

of digital technology that can help leaders achieve their strategic priorities. It’s vital for managers to engage with some of the basics of computer science because “they give people a framework to think about the direction that... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology; Information Technology

29 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: Jan. 29

post-Cold War period, with an emphasis on the political factors, external and domestic, impeding and contributing to the full realization of the potential of energy ties between Russia and China. Purchase this case:http://hbr.org/search/713045-PDF-ENG Bonnier: View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

Management. Taylor and Francis, 2011 Abstract Routine and persistent acts of dishonesty prevail in everyday life, yet most people resist shining a critical moral light on their own behavior, thereby maintaining and oftentimes inflating View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

31 May 2016
First Look

May 31, 2016

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51099 May 2016 American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings Copyright Infringement in the Market for Digital Images By: Luo, Hong, and Julie Holland... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Faculty & Advisors | MBA

his work with Sir Simon Lovestone. His doctoral thesis leveraged machine-learning, AI, and healthcare big-data -- genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, imaging -- to develop diagnostics and therapeutics for Parkinson’s and... View Details

26 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

How Humans Outshine AI in Adapting to Change

a player’s keypress. To complete the game, the player—human or machine—had to navigate the digital self to a goal using four moves: up, down, right, or left. Human players used arrow keys. Each of the game versions interfered with the... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

09 May 2024
Research & Ideas

Called Back to the Office? How You Benefit from Ideas You Didn't Know You Were Missing

classrooms, labs, dining halls, and elsewhere on campuses have a unique influence on the course of scientific research, according to the study, coauthored by Eamon Duede, a postdoctoral fellow at the Digital Data Design Institute at... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

ask for images of “a man,” it is very likely to create an image of a white man, likely because of the data on which it was trained. This issue of perpetuating biases raises a lot of interesting policy... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

May 2022
Case

Thinking Outside the Wine Box (A): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign

By: Tomomichi Amano, Elie Ofek, Mengjie Cheng and Amy Klopfenstein

This case provides an overview of “Franz for Life,” an advertising campaign that independent advertising agency Mekanism created and executed to revitalize the brand image of Franzia, a low-cost boxed wine. For several years, Franzia’s popularity declined among... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Food and Beverage Industry; Advertising Industry; United States